Photos: Mimi Demura-Devore 

Church of the Crossroads is delighted to welcome Reverend Jacob Poindexter, his wife Krystal, their children Clarice and Eli, and their canine kids Ranger and Kenai, and bunny Disco to the Crossroads Ohana. 



As we enter this new season, we look forward to the wonderful journey ahead with Pastor Jacob’s leadership and guidance of our spiritual growth and community outreach. We trust that his vision, worship leadership, teaching, and pastoral care will inspire and strengthen our congregation for many years to come.

Photo: Elaine Lemons

Pastor Laura was a wonderful addition to our Crossroads family. She certainly was the right person for us at the right time. Originally, we and she had thought her bridge pastorate would be at least 6 months. However, because of the Search Team’s remarkable work at lightning speed, we were able to end our search by calling Pastor Jacob to begin this month. 

This is just a short note to inform the congregation that your Coordinating Council approved paying Pastor’s Laura’s salary and benefits to October 1, 2026. Therefore, she will be compensated for a total of six months, while having served four months. The Council did not believe that it was necessary to require some form of “work” to cover the remaining months of compensation because, for the good of the church, it was necessary to have a clear demarcation between the bridge pastor and the designated pastor.

I am happy to answer any questions you might have about the Council’s decision.

Kathy Triolo ~ kathygla@gmail.com 

The Peace and Justice Stewardship of Creation Mission Team (PJSC) had a busy and meaningful legislative year, working with community partners to advocate for policies that reflect our values of justice, compassion, and care for our neighbors. Here are some of the areas where we supported efforts for a more equitable Hawaiʻi.

Housing Justice

Housing remained a major focus of the 2026 legislative session. Several of Sen. Stanley Chang’s ALOHA Homes initiatives advanced this year, including SB 2060, which expanded state financing tools for affordable rental housing, and SB 2061, which moved forward a model for state-supported leasehold homeownership. However, advocates expressed concern that amendments weakened affordability goals by removing some owner-occupancy and income-targeting provisions. Initiatives to promote manufactured housing through an off-site construction working group and taxing Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) did not pass.

Empty Homes Tax: Six years ago, Church of the Crossroads launched an empty homes tax proposal, to encourage use of Oahu’s housing as homes for Oahu’s residents while generating much-needed funding for affordable housing. We came very close to success, but ultimately fell one vote short in both the City Council and the City Charter Commission. The Commission did, however, adopt a proposal to recognize Honolulu’s housing crisis as an ”existential threat” to our community and to declare the City’s compelling interest in encouraging the use of our limited housing supply as homes for Oʻahu residents. While not the outcome we hoped for, that is an important step forward in continuing this public conversation. We are deeply grateful to so many Crossroaders who supported this effort with your testimony, prayers and moral support, bringing serious attention to one of our community’s greatest challenges. We continue to seek courageous solutions to our housing crisis, so all will have opportunity for a safe and affordable home.

Criminal Justice Reform

PJSC also celebrated meaningful steps toward a more just criminal legal system. This year, the charge for possession of small amounts of illegal drugs was reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor, and penalties for drug paraphernalia possession were eased. These reforms were supported by First Circuit judges and others who have long advocated for a more effective and humane approach to sentencing. Looking ahead, PJSC will continue following debates over cash bail reform and whether public resources should prioritize building a new jail or investing in community-based alternatives. A continuing challenge is the lack of treatment capacity, with some community programs currently facing long waitlists.

Red Hill Accountability

The 2026 legislative session also brought modest but important progress on Red Hill. Community members and organizations like the Shut Down Red Hill Coalition helped advance HB 1926, which supports environmental monitoring, independent water testing, and public access to water quality data while strengthening long-term state oversight of remediation efforts. Although stronger protections for Oʻahu’s aquifer and additional accountability measures for the U.S. Navy did not pass, the session maintained momentum toward protecting public health and ensuring continued oversight of Red Hill.

Looking Ahead: Advocacy in 2027

We invite your ideas for advocacy in 2027 as we continue putting our faith into action. What issues do you believe deserve our attention? Please join our upcoming meetings in September and October, or share your thoughts with PJSC chair Ehito Kimura at ehito.kimura@gmail.com. Together, we can continue working toward a more just, compassionate, and equitable Hawaiʻi.

Two spaces in our church are final resting places for our loved ones. Our church is based on cruciform design. There are two transepts on either side of the altar. The transept or alcove on the lector’s side houses our original columbarium. Here are the remains of Galen Weaver, our first pastor, and his wife Reba. Here you will find many of our founding members and many other members who have sustained Crossroads through the decades. Much of our history is carved into that wood. Our newer columbarium is in the opposite alcove. 

Our Coordinating Council recently discussed the need to better care for the columbaria and to treat them as places for prayer, meditation, and visitation. Have you noticed the recent addition of a sitting area in each alcove? Mahalo to Frances Wong, Harriet Roberts, and Livia Wang for these additions. There will soon be matching wooden trays for flowers and plants at the base of the niches provided by the Property Use and Maintenance Team (PUM). 

The church is a sacred space. These columbaria are sacred spaces. These spaces command respect and dignity. The clutter within these spaces have been collected over time. Storage areas are established in many places. Boxes appear, remain for a time, and then are moved. You will find items stashed behind the organ, under tables, on top of file cabinets. Clutter throughout the church and specifically in the columbaria were not intended to be disrespectful. However, the overall effect detracts from the dignity and purpose of the space. 

We must act more mindfully in our care of the church and the columbaria. On a practical level, families who pay a mortuary or cemetery for columbarium space know there will be a certain level of care and a clean, respectful environment will be maintained. The families who choose Church of the Crossroads as the final resting place for their loved ones deserve the same assurance. 

We can all help maintain the spaces’ dignity, beauty and atmosphere of respect by treating the church with reverence and the columbaria as what they are meant to be, places to honor and remember those we have loved and who have loved us and our church. So please, if you see clutter, remove it. If you find a water bottle, sweater, umbrella, etc., in the church, take it to the office instead of putting it on the file cabinet. If you use a music stand, put it away in the flower room or music office. Mahalo for your kokua.

Future Plans for Me and Georgie

As most of you know, on September 1st, I’ll be starting a year-long Clinical Pastoral Education program with Pacific Health Ministry, here on Oahu. You can read more about that here: https://www.phmhawaii.org/. Georgie plans to continue hiking in her favorite spots, exploring her new neighborhood, and eventually wants to convince her mom to trust her in the dog park again so she can make some new doggo friends. For now, she’s enjoying being reunited with her cousin Rhaegar on Kauai!

Greatest Joys and Hardest Challenge

For the first time in my life, I got a much fuller picture of who Crossroads is, at this particular moment. I’ve always experienced glimpses and part of the story (and while I’m sure there’s still a lot I don’t know) - I finally had a chance to really SEE and be a part of the wholeness of Crossroads - from the lay leadership to the staff to all the wonderful people and places that inform this special place. What a gift it was to be a part of you for a season. I think the hardest challenge was simply adjusting to a shifting timeline once the bridge pastorate had begun. It was hard, but it was ALSO, and perhaps more importantly, a beautiful exercise in

ceding control, trusting the process, and finding God throughout it all. 

Seeds That Were Planted at Crossroads and Hopes for Crossroads’ Future

My hope is that one of the things I brought was a willingness to slow down, breathe, get grounded and present with one another and a moving Spirit, so that the work of Crossroads is in alignment with God, the internal community, and the needs of the larger community (human and beyond human) of Hawaiʻi. There is so much good energy at Crossroads -- prioritizing discernment, alignment and Spirit movement -- will be a gift to the future of Crossroads and your communities at large.